Aminocyclohexyl alkyl anilines which are either unsubstituted or substituted on both rings are already known from U.S. Pat. No. 2,511,028. They are suitable, for example, as intermediate products for the production of dyes, rubber auxiliaries, surface-active substances, polyamides, polyester polyamides or as corrosion inhibitors. According to the teaching of the above reference, the compounds are produced by the catalytic partial hydrogenation of the aromatic diamines on which these anilines are based. Unfortunately, this process is attended by the disadvantage that asymmetrical hydrogenation of the diaminodiphenyl alkanes cannot be carried out selectively, and, therefore, the yield of the partially-hydrogenated diamines in question amounts, at most, to only slightly more than 50% of the theoretical, as can be seen from the Examples of the patent.
Since the primary aminocyclohexyl methyl anilines are not only valuable intermediate products for the applications already mentioned, but are also particularly interesting chain-extending agents, having amino groups of graduated reactivity for use in polyurethane chemistry. The object of the present invention, then, is to provide new compounds of the type in question, whose amino groups show a higher difference in reactivity by virtue of the additional substitution on the aromatic ring, and which can be produced with greater degrees of selectivity by virtue of the asymmetrical substitution.
According to the invention, this object is achieved by the provision of the diamines or diamine mixtures according to the invention and by the process suitable for their production.